Design Blog – Resources & Inspiration

8 Unique Places to Find Quality Free Photos

I’ve noticed a (very welcome) trend lately where sites provide top quality, non-stock, photos up for free on a regular basis. I’ve done a quick roundup of some of the most interesting free photo sites to check out.

These photos are different to the free, or stock photos we are all used to seeing. I’m not sure how best to explain them, so it’s best to check them out for yourself – but they’re pretty much free stock photos without feeling like stock photos! Just top quality photos, frequently released.

Unsplash

Unsplash is the perfect example of a truly quality free photo site. There’s no fake stock looking photos here, just real, honest photos contributed by talented people. Truly beautiful photos that are completely free to do anything you want with. 10 new photos every 10 days.

Unsplash Example Photos

Bonus: Dropbox Sync with Splashbox

You can automatically sync these photos to your Dropbox with Splashbox.

Little Visuals

LittleVisuals is similar to Unsplash, but they aim to publish new photos every 7 days. I’m not sure who runs the project, but I really appreciate their effort. Be sure to follow @little_visuals and say thanks! These guys also allow you to download their photos in handy .zip packs!

Little Visuals Example Photos

Superfamous Studios

Superfamous release photos under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, you can use them however you like – just provide credit. I’m not sure how often new photos are released, but it looks like this is an ongoing project and there’s already a lot of incredible photos to browse.

Examples of Superfamous’ Photos

New Old Stock

New Old Stock is an intriguing site created by Cole Townsend. The idea is to publish vintage photos from the Public Archives that are free of known copyright restrictions. If you have any photos like that submit them.

Example Photos from New Old Stock

DotSpin

DotSpin isn’t quite like all of the above examples, but it can still be a handy resource for beautiful free photos. Dotspin features free to use Instagram photos. you can even earn rewards for contributing your snaps.

Example of photos on DotSpin

Death to the Stock Photo

Death to the Stock Photo requires you to sign up (free) – Then you’ll have high quality photos sent directly to your email every month. You get a free pack just for joining, and according to Twitter new members will soon be able to download previous photo packs too. Sure sounds great!

Death to the Stock Photo Examples

Pixabay

Now, I almost wasn’t going to include this, as there are a lot photos here that feel very stock, but they also have a good variety of top quality photos. Their Editor’s Choice is particularly worth checking out. It’s a larger site than most others on this list, but it’s still different enough to the stock photos we are used to and they pick some great photos.

Photo Examples from Pixabay

Function – Yes that’s us!

Our very own photos. Inspired by the likes of Unsplash and LittleVisuals we’ve released some photo packs of our own. 100% free to do whatever you want with. I’m no photographer, but hey these are free!

Examples of my photos

Added: GratisPhotography

Our list is already growing. GratisPhotography is a project run by Ryan McGuire for Bells Design which features new photos added each week. All pictures are completely free of any copyright! A nice addition.

Examples from GratisPhotography

Added: PicJumbo

PicJumo recently launched and provides one quality free photo every day! Totally free photos for your commercial & personal work. Make sure you subscribe to get the new ones sent to you daily!

PicJumbo Example Photos

Double-check the Licenses

There’s a lot of different licenses on the photos featured above, be sure to check, and if in doubt just give credit. A number of them don’t require any attribution, but it’s always worth checking and being sure.

Any more like this? Let me know

If you know of any similar sites or projects tweet me and let me know. I’m not looking for big, mainstream – standard stock photos, I think we’re all seen enough of those. If you find anything in-line with the examples above though, let me know and I’ll add them in. Enjoy your photos!